


Left Alone

by thisAnon



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3179453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisAnon/pseuds/thisAnon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dorian leaves Trevelyan. Trevelyan copes.<br/>Written as a fill for a prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt:  
> About a year after the events of Dragon Age Inquisition, Dorian finally decides to return to Tevinter, breaking up with the inquisitor as gently and kindly as he can. Dorian does love the inquisitor, but being unaccustomed to long-term relationships and domesticity, he felt it was time to move on.  
> However, the inquisitor is devastated, and his views of love are completely shattered. How the inquisitor expresses his pain is the author's choice (whether it's a string of lovers, or a newly cruel and cynical personality, or even extreme depression).  
> It's up to the author if it ends happily.

Lord Trevelyan had never been a man of kind words. He could say them and sometimes mean them, but rarely did he ever say things simply because he cared. Most of the time, kind words were simply another tool for Trevelyan to use, part of the ways of him getting what he wanted. Being the third son meant he had to use whatever means he could to impose his will and it was not at all different from being the Inquisitor. 

After all, how else could he remain a well-loved public figure while maintaining a relationship with a Tevinter mage?

Still, it seemed Trevelyan's efforts in assuring that the said relationship including emotional blackmail, sweet talk and even ill-attempts at poetry had all been for naught. With the defeat of the threats to Thedas, Dorian felt it was time to move on. Going back to Tevinter to fix things, he had said, including strings of honeyed words that all boiled down to them being over because Dorian had to do it alone, had to do it standing on his own two feet without the Inquisitor's influence behind him. Despite all those times Dorian had said he wanted more, despite how Trevelyan had given him more, who was it that ultimately left? It didn't even seem to matter how he meant everything he had said this time, when in the end he was still alone.

Like a man trying to once again learn a forgotten skill, Trevelyan had to reacquaint himself with his own company in light of Dorian's absence. During evenings, it meant his bed would hold only one instead of two and lazy afternoons were spent in the war room, reading reports or training instead of playing a game of chess, wandering the grounds or discussing various subjects they could think of. There was no way to fill the gaps but to rely on himself as the thought of seeking out the company of other men only left him emptier. 

The devastation broke Trevelyan into splinters and sometimes, just sometimes in the dead of night, when he could no longer bear it, would simply stare out into the mountains, wondering what he could have or should have done. He drank too, away from everyone else, alone, because the brandy brought back memories of warmer nights and he would sleep, in his uneasy dreams wandering the endless expanse of the fade trying to find something and failing.

He knew everyone else noticed, Cole had sought him out at one point in the tavern and pointed out Dorian had loved him, still loved him, and Trevelyan shut down, unwilling to test his talent for denying his own tears in front of everyone in the Inquisition and wandered off to the vault library where no one would find him.

Utterly miserable. Trevelyan nevertheless picked himself up back each time the sun rose, piecing together fallen pieces and hoping they stick. Eventually he managed to find a little of his old self again. Days turned into weeks, turned into long months before a cloaked figure entered the halls of Skyhold one busy evening during a small fete welcoming some important dignitary, so familiar to Trevelyan even under all those layers of clothing with that graceful gait with just a hint of a swagger.

All at once Trevelyan had to keep himself from abruptly rising from his seat. He excused himself first, grateful he managed to speak without his voice shaking. He strode to his quarters, heart hammering in his chest as he heard the light tread of footsteps behind him.

He said nothing even as he crossed over to the hearth, hoping to warm himself as he felt a chill rush over him that wasn't because of the ice and snow all around them and it took all his strength to turn around to face Dorian, because he knew it would hurt to even look.

And seeing him, exactly the same as the day he had ended everything between them, made tears flow freely from his eyes and his chest tighten in tangled knots. All the sadness broke out, while both pride or anger were simply forgotten. He brought his arms around Dorian's frame and with a soft sob pulled him into a crushing embrace.


End file.
